GENEVA, 5 Apr (AP) \u2014 The U.N.\u2019s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed Friday that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel\u2019s blistering military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The 47-member-country Human Rights Council voted 28-6 in favor of the resolution, with 13 abstentions.<\/p>\n
The sweeping measure takes aim at an array of Israeli actions such as impeding access to water and limiting shipments of humanitarian aid into Palestinian areas. It also calls on U.N.-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and \u201cdual use\u201d items \u2014 that have both civilian and military applications \u2014 that could be used by Israel against Palestinians.<\/p>\n
While non-binding, the resolution is bound to raise international pressure on Israel as a sign of widespread concern about its military campaign in Gaza, begun in response to the attacks in Israel by armed militants on Oct. 7, that has led to the killings of nearly 33,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Western countries were divided. The U.S. and Germany opposed the resolution, France and Japan abstained, while Belgium, Finland and Luxembourg voted in favor.<\/p>\n
Sustained applause interrupted the council president as he read the results. Israel\u2019s ambassador said she would not attend the rest of the day\u2019s session and called the resolution a \u201cstain on the Human Rights Council and the United Nations as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis council has long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas,\u201d Meirav Eilon Shahar said of the militant group behind the attacks. \u201cIt has become a shield for terrorists. It has turned a blind eye to any acts of violence against Israelis and Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was especially disappointed at European countries that backed the measure \u2014 calling out Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland by name \u2014 for supporting a resolution that did not condemn Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if any of you counted, but Israel appears in the resolution 59 times \u2014 59 times,\u201d she told reporters afterward. \u201cHamas does not appear at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the vote, the Palestinian ambassador in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, decried the \u201chumanitarian disaster\u201d in Gaza, and appealed to envoys \u201cto wake and stop this genocide \u2026 televised live across the world, killing thousands of innocent Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking in Arabic, Khraishi alluded to the genocide of Jews in Europe last century, saying: \u201cWe were not responsible, but we have been paying the price of what was done during the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel \u2014 at times joined by the United States \u2014 has regularly and roundly criticized the council for its alleged anti-Israel bias. The council has approved far more resolutions against Israel for its actions toward Palestinians over the years than against any other country.<\/p>\n
The council is wrapping up its first session of the year, which began on Feb. 26, with action on more than 40 resolutions on subjects as diverse as the rights of the child; the environment and human rights; genocide prevention; and rights situations in countries like Sudan, Belarus and North Korea.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, resolutions were passed on troubling rights situations in places like Myanmar, Iran, Ukraine and Syria.<\/p>\n
The resolution comes amid a growing focus on weapons shipments to Israel \u2014 notably by its strongest backer, the United States \u2014 as Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n
In a sign of Washington\u2019s growing impatience with Israel\u2019s handling of the military campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel\u2019s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.<\/p>\n
That was the first time that Biden has threatened to rethink his backing if Israel doesn\u2019t change its tactics and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.<\/p>\n
U.S. ambassador Michele Taylor, alluding to the Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza this week, told the council: \u201cIsrael has not done enough to mitigate civilian harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resolution had \u201cmany problematic elements \u2014 too many to name in full,\u201d she said, while noting a lack of \u201cspecific condemnation of Hamas for perpetrating the horrific Oct. 7 attacks\u201d in Israel.<\/p>\n
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GENEVA, 5 Apr (AP) \u2014 The U.N.\u2019s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed Friday that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel\u2019s blistering military campaign in Gaza. The 47-member-country Human Rights Council voted 28-6 in favor of the resolution, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-238341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}